Cultural Beliefs and Biases
The social media has influences on the culture, social order, and morality. Social media has revolutionized the conventional dating methods as people interact on online platforms through online dating through the resources provided. The social media has also had a significant impact on morality as individuals especially teenagers resort to posting photos and content that degrades the set morals. Teenagers and other social media users have adopted a cosmetic life that does not necessarily reflect their true selves when pursuing social media as asserted by O'Keeffe and Clarke-Pearson (2011). This is done to ensure that they get a positive response from likes and comments because these are the measures of how good or bad a person looks. Social media has also enabled anti-social behavior such as stocking.
Social media has been on the forefront to promote biases especially those related to racial and ethnic aspects. Users post comments and videos that are inflammatory or discriminatory towards a given section of people. Gender biases are also depicted in the use of social media platforms. Women and girls are judged on how beautiful they appear or how appealing they look as opposed to what message they may portray on the sites. Men, on the other hand, are judged depending on what they say or how they view situations.
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On a positive note, social media has enabled interaction and social bond among friends and family members through text messaging, video chatting, and sharing of content among others. Young people have improved their socialization skills thanks to social media enabling them to explore various aspects of their communication skills.
Social Roles
Platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have several social roles apart from enhancing interaction among people. Politicians have benefitted to a larger extent from social media because many of them can mobilize people through such platforms. Famous personalities and leaders can inspire and act as role models to millions of their followers through social media. News rooms are also able to reach thousands of people following them hence creating awareness among the people. Social media is useful to business people as it enables them to have a widened market. Also, social media has led to an increased negative influence to teenagers due to the posting of pornographic material and other inappropriate content.
Social Inequalities
Social media has over the recent past played a crucial role in promoting inequalities. It has since been understood that those who are likely to benefit from social media, especially those that deal with the posting of photos, are those who have an appealing look. Attractive looks are judged on the basis the type of cloth worn, makeup, and fashion trend among others. Therefore, those who cannot match to these standards are automatically excluded. Inequalities can also be depicted when other users do not respect the freedom of others. This could be through posting material that targets to scorn or undermine others, hacking the social media accounts of others, and writing or sending inappropriate content without consent to others.
Existing Conditions
An addiction that comes with the use of social media has adverse effects on the level of concentration and productivity of an individual. People tend to spend too much time on such sites hence giving little attention to other areas of vital importance. O'Keeffe and Clarke-Pearson (2011) asserted that to young individuals, social media could have a great impact on their self-esteem in the case where the sites are unable to live up to their expectations. Social media also causes individuals to adopt a fake life that is borrowed from the platforms hence destroying the personalities of people. Finally, students' performance has also deteriorated with the use of social media because little time is given to studies.
Reference
O'Keeffe, G. S., & Clarke-Pearson, K. (2011). The impact of social media on children, adolescents, and families. Pediatrics , 127 (4), 800-804.
